Accessible and inclusive design should be a priority for the property market

Grosvenor and The Crown Estate have launched a new report that aims to shed light on the challenges faced by people with physical and hidden disabilities when accessing and working within buildings and public spaces across the UK. The joint report, Inclusive Spaces and Places: A collaborative approach to inclusive design, highlights the urgent need for inclusive design in the built environment, emphasising the barriers that prevent millions from fully engaging with public and commercial spaces as well as the potential societal and economic losses this results in.

Limited accessibility impacts a staggering portion of the population, with one in four of the UK’s 67 million people living with a disability, and thousands more facing temporary mobility challenges each year. When combined with an aging population, the scale of the challenge becomes clear.

In response, The Crown Estate and Grosvenor, in conjunction with other major property owners, are urging the industry to unite in addressing this issue. Newly launched open-source tools created by the two organisations alongside those with lived experience offer the industry the opportunity to collaborate and drive real, practical change.

The first of these is an inclusive design brief which includes technical guidance and a set of prompts for design teams to embed inclusive design throughout the lifecycle of a project. They have also developed a template for creating an inclusive design panel of people with lived experience which will be used across all new developments within their respective portfolios.

The organisations have founded a new working group – the Accessible and Inclusive Places Industry Group – to drive collaboration and change across the sector. Alongside Grosvenor and The Crown Estate, several of the founding members, British Land, Lendlease, Cadogan, Landsec and Heathrow, have already committed to the recommendations in the report.

Ade Adepitan, Paralympian and TV presenter, supports the campaign: “Creating buildings and places that are accessible and welcoming is more than a functional piece of work; it is a necessity for creating inclusive and thriving communities,” he says.